ave is proud to join , Circle of Friends, an initiative designed to raise awareness about the toll tobacco-related disease takes on women, and the importance of offering support to loved ones trying to quit smoking. SHOUTS & MURMURS NICE DOGGY BY SUSAN ORLEAN About 15,000 years of friendship between man and dog have helped man's best friend to develop unique ways of understanding hu- mans: abilities that still are somewhat myste- rious to scientists and dog lovers, several studies released this week found. "It looks like dogs really. . . are thinking about what we want, and they understand that we are trying to communicate," said Brian Hare of Harvard University, who au- thored one of the studies. Not only did the dogs Hare tested pick up on what human re- searchers were trying to convey, they sur- prised scientists by doing it much better than other species, even chimpanzees.-CNN. T he other day, my Welsh springer spaniel, Cooper, gave me a manicure. He doesn't give the world's best mani- cure-for that you'd have to go to that Ko- rean joint, Nuclear Nails, or whatever it's called, on Broadway-but he really tries. He can tell whether I'm in the mood to have my cuticles cut or just pushed back, and it was actually his idea to wear a little white unifonn-he can just sense that it makes me more comfortable to have a "professional" atmosphere whenever I'm getting personal services. And you know how every time you get a manicure you im- mediately remember something you need in your handbag? And how if you put your hand in your bag to get it you wreck your nails? Cooper knows how frustrating that is to me, so as soon as he's done with my top coat he goes over to my handbag, emp- ties the contents, and separates everything into little piles so that I can get whatever I need without making a dent in my polish. Look, I know he's not perfect. He ate an entire pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving while I was at a perfonnance of "Phan- tom." He engages in retributive vomiting when he's left alone for more than four hours. He can, at times, smell. But in terms of totally grokking my emotions, he is off the charts. Whenever I break up with someone, Cooper is there with the complete hey-girlfriend treatment: the bottle of California champagne, the fatty snacks, the comfy sweatclothes that I hadn't dared wear while courting Mr. Wrong. He doesn't dole out all the tired lines like "You're too good for him anyway" and "You are by far the best- looking and thinnest of all of our :&iends"; he just gives me that look, nudges the bowl of Doritos in my direction, and by his silence implies that I don't need to do anything but have myself a big old cry: Monkeys? Sure, they're super-cute, es- pecially when you dress them in those frilly white bonnets and little corduroy shorts. It's nice that they can acquire a complex vocabulary of gestural signs and classifY sets of objects with respect to their ordinal relationship. The opposable thumb is a big whoop. But that's the thing: they have the morphology but not the motiva- tion. Do you remember Mr. Thumb ever zipping your dress without being begged? Recently, I got downsized at work, and then I had to listen to my so-called :&iends give me their "rational" assessments of the situation-the crap about my failure to meet quarterly departmental goals, my re- sponsibility for the mold-spore contami- nation in the office re:&igerator, the unfor- tunate incident with the color copier. I guess they thought that once I saw my role in getting canned I could be more philo- sophical. Note to "friends": Yeah, like, I'm sure. Cooper, on the other hand, just em- pathized, and then, when I went in to clean out my desk, he marched himself straight into the boss's office and did what I would have done if I weren't a lady: Of course, I'm sorry about the Klez virus on the firm's server, but you have to admit it's pretty im- pressive for a dog to know how to write code. Anywa it was a catharsis for both of us, even if the judge didn't see it that way: Cooper's empathy skills are so acute that I've decided to let him screen not only potential suitors but :&iends and fam- ily members, too--myvery own Office of Homeland Security: He's really strict. In I fact, it's just the two of us now. I'm pretty happ mostl but I can tell that Cooper senses that I'm a little lonely: I think if I re- ally want to he'll let me get another dog. . In America today, one out of every five women is a smoker. Quitting isn't easy, but evidence shows that when friends are there to help each other, they're more likely to succeed. The Circle of Friends Sunburst represents a new movement of people joining together in support of women struggling with tobacco addiction. Now you can help shine light on this important cause by wearing the Sunburst Pin. Created by world- renowned jewelry designer Angela Cummings, the sterling silver Sunburst Pin is now - vaitable exclusively through ave for $16.00 (shipping and handling $3.97). A portion* of the sale price from each pin will help fund ervices for women who are dedicated to living smoke-free lives, both for their own sake, and for the sake of their families and friends. r- Gir of ffiVl\ s , ' UnIting To Be Smoke.Free To purchase the pin, caU '-800-345-1515 and ask for item #J99555, or visit ave online at www"qvc..com.. :IjI: At least $5.00 Q.VC.